Wireless and satellite technologies make it possible to bring new media art practices off the desktop and into the street. Navigation technologies are being used for critical narrative and personal storytelling in a variety of contexts; literary, scientific, political, and as games. The Sony Walkman, possibly the first really mass distributed portable communications device; to be worn on the body melded personal "soundtrack" with personal mobile experience. Audio tours of historic landmarks and exhibitions have supplied narrative to augment public experience of art and history. This trope of new work in public spaces utilizing the range of mobile technologies at our current disposal, emphasizes artists ability to draw on urban history, fact, experience and architecture to articulate a range of ideas. NAR Weekly Features is pleased to be presenting a 'special focus' on ART AND MOBILE TECH over the next few months. Reviews, writing, and highlighted projects will be posted each Wednesday. Please tune in --mh

"Itinerant" is a site-specific sound installation in Boston, Massachusetts. It invites people to take a walk through Boston Common and surrounding neighborhoods to experience an interactive sound work that re-frames Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, the classic tale of conflict between techno scientific hubris and the human spirit. The project engages a search for an elusive character who is doppleganger to both the doctor and the creature. Sounds, 'played' by visitors as they move through the city, create a series of frames within which to reflect upon our highly mobile, technologically saturated society and issues of identity, place, and displacement. Mobile and locational media (GPS) formally underscore themes in the work. The sonic overlay is also presented as an interactive map on the web, creating a formal re-framing and displacement of this site specific work.

"Itinerant" is a 2005 commission of New Radio and Performing Arts, Inc. (aka Ether-Ore). It was made possible with funding from the Jerome Foundation and the LEF Foundation.:: [+] ::